If you have been following along with our feasibility study, you should be well versed in Identifying the core problem and understanding your current state. I recommend that you read these before moving forward with brainstorming.
Look back at the five steps to conduct a feasibility study.
- Identify the core problem to be solved.
- Understand your current state.
- Brainstorm solutions
- Test Solutions against current state
- Decide on a course of action
Brainstorming can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the process.
Set the Stage
Brainstorming is a collective action. It is important to bring all the key stakeholders together in your organization and sometimes even people outside of your organization if they are or will be an important player in whatever action you take.
For example, depending on the situation and your relationship, your existing supplier might be a part of the brainstorming, or at least a few of the sessions. Your supplier might be willing to move to a new location to remain competitive or engage in manufacturing improvement operations that could allow both of you to remain competitive. This could backfire as the supplier could use the opportunity to raise prices if they believe that they are about to be shut out.
Other outside organizations involved may be distributors, sales and marketing, and your bank.
Everyone involved should have as much information as possible for their role in the enterprise. You need open and informed conversation.
Use a Variety of Methods
There are a wide variety of methods you can use for brainstorming. The best method depends on your team. Here are a few you can try:
- Brainwriting: Instead of verbal brainstorming, participants write down their ideas silently and then share them, reducing inhibitions and encouraging more diverse perspectives.
- Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis.
- Reverse Brainstorming: focus on the pitfalls rather than the advantages so you can figure out how to avoid them.
- Idea Wall: Use a physical or virtual board to capture and categorize ideas, allowing for easy visualization and collaboration.
- Mind Mapping: Visually organize ideas and concepts, creating branches and sub-branches around the central theme of relocation. This helps to identify connections and foster creativity.
Do not be afraid to change the methods if the first (or second) does not work well for you.
It is better, if possible, to meet in person rather than remotely.
Constantly Refer Back to Core Problems and Objectives
Anyone who has been in a large meeting or a strategy session, it is easy to lose track of the core message and activities. Remind the group whenever the topic strays from the core problem. Everyone should have a list of the core problems that need to be addressed and a summary of the current state. The off-topic ideas may be good ones and something that the company should return to, but they should be set aside for future discussions and not waste the time on what is needed now.
Develop at Least Three Options
The brainstorming session should leave you with at least three viable options. These will need to be tested against the current state (see our next post about that).
We recommend three options to avoid a binary choice. There is no arbitrary number of options that are too many; however, five to seven is a good general rule. For the most part, more than that is too many and can lead to choice overload. Doing nothing is an option and should always be considered.
Make sure all parties agree, at least to some extent, that the options presented are viable.
You are now ready to test those ideas against the current state.
What can MTG do to help you improve your operations?
